Intrepida's bad influence on me.

[mrissa]

intrepida had a question meme, and I was just waking up, so here it is. Feel free to ask me random other questions. I might even feel free to answer them.

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?
No.

2. Do you close your eyes on roller coasters?
No -- if I'm going to go, I want to see! But it's been seven years and a month since I went on a roller coaster. (Senior Week. Valley Fair. gaaldine's tiniest indoor voice beside me: "wheeee.")

3. When's the last time you've been sledding?
Traying, I think junior year. With actual sleds instead of caf trays? Senior year of high school (probably January of '95), with scottjames and Mike and Jackie. Michael -- did you know this, natalieann? -- is sledding-impaired. We tried to have symbiont races. When scottjames and I reached the bottom in triumph, we heard muffled sounds of despair from further up the hill. Michael had formed an inverted v with his face and feet in the ground. Jackie was chiding him for his lack of mad sl3dding skillz.

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
As intrepida says, that depends heavily on the "someone else." I was put to sleep with an elderly aunt for several family reunions, and -- "She snored?" the relatives always interrupt me at that point in the sentence. Ah, no. I wish she had snored. She farted. A lot.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
No. The closest I've come to seeing a ghost is that I have dreams every 4-6 weeks that I'm having brunch with my Gran. I've had them ever since she died in '96.

6. Do you consider yourself creative?
Mostly I don't think about it. If you flounce around going, "ooh, oh, I'm so creative, I'm such an artiste," very few stories get written that way, and very few cookies baked.

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?
I don't care.

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?
Oh, gosh, no thanks. Thanks, though.

9. Do you stay friends with your ex's?
Depends. Some people I broke up with because I realized they were lousy excuses for human beings. This is not a solid basis for a friendship. Some people I broke up with because we just didn't have enough personality and/or interest stuff in common, and this, too, is unlikely to make for a lasting friendship. But sometimes you break up because circumstance and timing are unfortunate, or because you find you make better friends than partners, and then I keep those people around. (Most of you who have read this long-term know that scottjames is one such: hi, Scott!)

10. Do you know how to play poker?
It's like Yahtzee with cards, right?

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
Ah, hahahahahahaNO. The sleep deprivation EEGs in January (posts starting here) was barely 30 hours, and I was Not Okay by the end of that.

12. What's your favorite commercial?
I try not to know that.

13. What are you allergic to?
Cats and birch trees, mostly.

14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around do you run red lights?
Only if I suspect that the "turn this light green" trigger has been missed somehow.

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
I'm not sure. Some of the things I think are secret are apparently really obvious to people like porphyrin (it's a little disconcerting to have Soooper Seeekrit Revelations greeted with, "Well, duh"), and some of the things I think are really obvious are perhaps not so much so. I don't make an effort to have a secret that no one knows but me, but I also don't make a huge effort not to -- if I forget to tell markgritter what my favorite planet is, for example, I don't think the world will come to an end.

16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees?
Twins, Cardinals, Blue Jays (that last because "O Canada" is a much better national anthem, and the Elbos are gone, *sniff*). But if I have to choose between those two, Sox, no question. Just look at what happened to Johnny Damon. His soul got eaten even before the season was officially started. It's a very sad case.

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?
Is that the same thing as ice skating? If so, then yes, and I hope to go again sometime this winter.

18. How often do you remember your dreams?
Several days a week.

19. When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?
It can't have been more than two months ago, but I don't know when within that time frame. Probably one of the days timprov and I were being Very Silly.

20. Can you name 5 songs by The Beatles?
Yes.

21. What's the one thing on your mind now?
The one thing? I always say I have an eight-track mind. One thing that's on my mind right now is whether a flashback is okay in Sampo after not having one for an entire book before that and not intending one for the rest of the book after.

22. Do you know who Ghetto-ass barbie is?
I share intrepida's blissful ignorance, and I'm not going to use Google to find out, either.

23. Do you always wear your seat belt?
Not when I'm not in the car. Otherwise, yes.

24. What cell service do you use?
Sprint. Or mitosis. Depending.

25. Do you like Sushi?
Yes. Gratuitous Capitalization, However, I Only Like In Certain Moods.

26. Have you ever narrowly avoided a fatal accident?
Yes. Unlike intrepida, the tornado of '98 was not nearly fatal to me: if I'd been in my dorm and she'd been in hers, I'd have been shaken-up but fine, and she may well have been an ex-intrepida. But I did almost drown the summer I was in Ohio. Currents and long swims and hypoglycemia don't mix, kids.

Also the truck that didn't hit us on the way home from porphyrin's awhile ago could easily have killed us if it had, but that's not on the level of expecting to die soon, it's the sort of thing we've all had.

27. What do you wear to bed?
Varies, but my favorite thing is old physics club T-shirts. I don't know what I'll do when they're all worn through. Cry, I guess.

28. Been caught stealing?
scottjames stabbed me with a fork for it once. Now I leave his brownie pie strictly alone.

29. what shoe size do you have?
7 1/2, but my feet are weirdly boney, so it's hard to find shoes that fit properly even though it's easy to find shoes in the right size.

30. Do you truly hate anyone?
"Truly hate" as in "would push off the planet, given the chance"? No. There's one person for whom I wouldn't lift a finger to keep him from falling off the planet, though, and there are several people I happily avoid while we all still live on the same one.

31. Classic Rock or Rap?
Classic rock, I think; for most meanings of that term, at least.

32. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be?
My concepts of who is famous and who is not are notoriously skewed.

33. Favorite Song?
Total orderings are bad. My favorite of the songs in my head right now is the Indigo Girls' "All That We Let In." But as other songs in my head right now include "Harvey the Wonder Hamster" and "Simpson, Homer Simpson, he's the greatest guy in history..." and "Robin Hood and Little John, walkin' through the forest, laughin' back and forth at what the other one had to say...." So I think we'll stick with "All That We Let In."

34. Have you ever sang in front of the mirror?
"Have sung," quiz writers! "Have sung"! And yes, I have sung in front of the mirror. I have sung behind the mirror. I have sung most places in my house, because we sing a lot, around here.

35. What food do you find disgusting?
Stringy things: shrimp, pineapple, celery. Texture is a big deal for me, as I don't have the option of not "tasting" (smelling) most foods around me even if I haven't opted to eat them. There are a few very specific combinations of smells that turn my appetite for the rest of the day. After my first few months of college, I started to be able to spot those on the caf menu and stay away that night, eating Kraft dinner or pizza or granola bars in my room.

36. Do you sing in the shower?
See "mirror."

37. Did you ever play, "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours"?
No. Even at the young age implied by the phrasing, I was not convinced that kind of display should be made a bartering transaction.

38. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?
Like intrepida, of course I have, and it's a subset of stuff I would say to make fun of them to their faces, not a superset.

39. Have you ever stood up for someone you hardly knew?
Yah. It's kind of reflex, really.

40. Have you ever been punched in the face?
Punched, no. Hit, yes. This is one of those situations where "I prefer not to go into it" is such a useful phrase.

Comments

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

21. The deal with flashbacks is you never know when you're going to have one. I've had several, and years have gone by between them. Depending on the timeframes involved in the book, it's completely conceivable that there'd be only one.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was speaking of a flashback as a literary structural device rather than a neurological or pharmacological experience.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

But - even if that were what she was talking about - that's reality, and stories are different.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep. "It happened that way in real life" is not enough excuse for something to happen a certain way in a story.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

No, I did not know that! Hee. Heeheehee. Such a lovely mental image! I just realized that I owe Tom email...from 6 months ago. I am such a terrible friend sometimes.

So what *is* your favorite planet? (I ask, knowing full well that I will likely run into the total ordering prohibition.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Neptune, probably, but ask me later and the answer will change.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Hi!

Michael is a bad sledder. I'd be downright embarrassed, if I were him.

I've mellowed in my old(er) age. I'd let you have a bite of brownie pie, now.

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

I am so flattered to be a bad influence on you. I was closer to being an ex-intrepida from the tornado than many. I had driven my car down to St. Peter from Burnsville to see some of my SCA friends that day, and go to a birthday party. We left the St. Peter community center about 5 minutes before the storm hit. I saw it drop down into the valley in my rearview mirror as I was leaving town on 22. Brrr. Too close, just too close.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of glad I didn't know you were that close at the time. I was already freaking out enough about Heathah and Dave and the baby.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?
Is that the same thing as ice skating? If so, then yes, and I hope to go again sometime this winter.

It's ice skating for German people.

Shrimp are stringy?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Ah, good point on the Ice Skating.

Yes, actually shrimp *are* stringy; I've noticed it as well.

The strange thing is that scallops are stringy in a similar way, and I have observed mrissa eat them with apparent pleasure. Well, the fibers are both shorter and softer, so perhaps that's enough difference.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Softer is the difference for me.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Well, they are. Have shrimp for dinner and floss shortly afterward and you will see.

Crabs are much stringier, but in their case the strings are softer. The meat in the crablegs I had for dinner the other day kept spontanously decomposing into strings every time I tried to get a clump to stay on my fork.

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

I wondered about the shrimp thing too. =/

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hee!

For me it's the pollen, not the bark. So I had a pretty miserable season here.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. Okay. Most of my references to tree-licking are about the taste of g&t's, which are nasty and vile.